Thune’s political journey comes full circle, 20 years after toppling a leader

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D, asks a question of U.S. Trade Representative Katherine C. Tai as she testifies before the Senate Finance Committee on Capitol Hill, May 12, 2021, in Washington, D.C. (Susan Walsh-Pool/)

Twenty years after he won his Senate seat by assailing Tom Daschle's performance as minority leader, John Thune is the chamber's next majority leader.

Thune's Republican colleagues elected him to the job Wednesday. The South Dakotan now faces a test like the one he accused Daschle of failing.

"There is a line where seniority and influence go from being an asset to being a liability," Thune said during a 2004 debate against Daschle, "and Tom has crossed that line."

The 63-year-old Thune expects an easier balancing act than Daschle, who worked to advance a national Democratic agenda while representing a Republican-leaning state.

"I think the majority of South Dakotans' views on the big issues of the day sync up nicely with the Republican Party," Thune told South Dakota Searchlight in a March interview .

South Dakota U.S. Sen. John Thune elected as next majority leader for Republicans

Wednesday, after winning the leadership election, Thune issued a statement saying "this Republican team is united behind President Trump's agenda."

Yet some of Thune's own views — political and personal — don't sync up with the leader of the Republican Party, President-elect Donald Trump. They've clashed repeatedly during Trump's eight years in the national political spotlight.

In 2016, after an "Access Hollywood" tape exposed Trump's crude remarks about women, Thune urged Trump to drop out of that year's presidential race.

In 2021, after Thune criticized Trump's attempt to overturn the 2020 election , Trump said South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem should run against Thune in a primary (on Tuesday, Trump said he plans to nominate Noem for secretary of Homeland Security).

In February of this year, Thune endorsed Trump for president only after it was clear he would win the Republican nomination, following Thune's earlier endorsement of South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott.

And in August, Thune called Trump's proposals to broadly expand tariffs — which are taxes on imported goods — " a recipe for increased inflation ."

That history between the two men hints at possible future conflicts that could force Thune, like Daschle before him, to consider what lines he's willing to cross.

Small-town roots Thune's rise to political prominence began far away from the national consciousness.

He grew up in Murdo, a city of fewer than 500 people next to Interstate 90, on the semi-arid plains of western South Dakota. The town's truck stop and tourist attraction, the Pioneer Auto Show, pull motorists off the highway, while the rest of the economy depends mostly on ranchers and farmers.

Thune's mother was the high school librarian. His father was a teacher, basketball coach and a recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross for his combat pilot service in World War II. John is one of Harold and Pat Thune's five children.

Thune has recalled his mother as "eternally optimistic" and someone who ensured her children "got some culture — whether we wanted it or not." That included piano lessons, participating in a choir and scheduled reading.

"My dad was the embodiment of the American dream," Thune said in 2020 after Harold died at age 100. "He was a small-town South Dakota kid who worked hard and valued God, family and country."

Young John Thune grew to a 6-feet-4-inch star on his high school basketball team. He went on to play college basketball while earning a bachelor's degree in business from Biola University, a private Christian university in California.

Thune added a master's in business administration from the University of South Dakota and went to work in 1985 for his political mentor, Republican U.S. Sen. Jim Abdnor.

Abdnor lost his Senate seat to Daschle in 1986, adding another layer of meaning to the eventual Thune-Daschle campaign.

A struggle to reach the Senate In the early 1990s, Thune worked as the leader of South Dakota's railroad office and then as director of an association representing South Dakota cities.

He launched his political career with a bid for an open U.S. House seat in 1996. He won that race and easily won two reelection campaigns.

In 2002, he challenged the popular and moderate Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson. Thune lost by 524 votes — 0.15% of the votes cast. Though he expressed concerns about alleged voting improprieties, Thune conceded the race eight days after the election.

"I have had to ask myself if putting the people of South Dakota through a recount would be divisive or helpful to the process," Thune said at the time .

More recently, he said the loss "humbled" him and shaped him as a person and politician.

"You're grateful for the opportunities but realize they're all temporary," Thune said in March, "and you want to make the most of what you've been given in the amount of time we have here."

The loss threatened to end his political career. He consulted his wife, Kimberley, and their two daughters about challenging Daschle in 2004.

"I remember we were having a discussion around the kitchen table, and we actually put it to a secret ballot vote," Thune recalled in a 2014 interview . "The vote was 3-1 in favor, and I was the no vote."

Thune waged a nationally scrutinized campaign against Daschle, the sitting minority leader and previous majority leader. The high-stakes contest included a combined $30 million of spending and a debate on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Thune emerged with a reputation as a political giant slayer. He won by highlighting conflicts between Daschle's responsibilities to Senate Democrats and conservative South Dakotans. A Thune television ad featured video clips of Daschle "in his own words" praising Hillary Clinton's election to the Senate, advocating for abortion rights and saying "I'm a D.C. resident."

To avoid being labeled a "D.C. resident" himself, the new senator kept his home and family in Sioux Falls as he flew back and forth to the nation's capital.

An early test Several months after Thune took his Senate oath of office, the U.S. Department of Defense initiated a long-rumored plan to close South Dakota's Ellsworth Air Force Base.

The base supported nearly 7,000 military and civilian jobs. During the '04 campaign, Thune insisted he'd be just as able to protect Ellsworth as Daschle. Thune quickly learned how difficult it would be to honor that pledge.

"Nobody was going to say, 'Gee whiz, you fought and bled for us in back-to-back Senate races, so we're going to take care of you,'" Thune said in a 2019 interview . "We realized we were going to have to win this one on the merits. So that's when we just really went to work."

Thune was part of a bipartisan South Dakota team that convinced the Base Realignment and Closure Commission to spare Ellsworth. He went on to work with Ellsworth boosters to expand the base's training airspace, add a remotely piloted aircraft squadron, and earn Ellsworth's selection as the first home for B-21 bombers, which are currently under development by the Air Force. Thune now counts his efforts to save and solidify Ellsworth's future among his greatest achievements.

Rising through the ranks In the years after the Ellsworth fight, Thune climbed the Senate leadership ladder. He progressed through the chairmanships of the Senate Republican Policy Committee, Republican Conference, and Commerce Committee.

He's served as Republican Senate whip since 2019, second in rank behind the party's Senate leader, Mitch McConnell.

Along the way, Thune has never faced a significant reelection challenge. He was so popular with South Dakota voters by 2010 that nobody ran against him, and he earned about 70% of the votes in each of his 2016 and 2022 campaigns. The lack of serious competitors allowed him to build up a large campaign account — its balance is $15 million — and make millions in contributions over the years to other Republicans and the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

But as the Trump era dawned, Thune found himself occupying a shrinking traditional wing of the Republican Party.

His political future grew cloudy in 2022 as he considered retirement from the Senate amid Trump's calls for Noem to challenge Thune in a primary. Yet Thune was also thinking about his potential to succeed McConnell.

"As I thought about running for reelection, one of the things that kind of motivated me to do it was the idea that this possibility might come along," he said in March.

His 2022 reelection did nothing to endear him to Trump supporters. Last year, Thune stayed away from a Trump rally at a Rapid City arena where Noem gave Trump her endorsement. A crowd of about 7,000 people responded by booing Thune's image when it was shown on a video board.

Noem took a veiled jab at Thune and other no-shows in her speech at the rally, criticizing those who "didn't even show up tonight to welcome a former president of the United States to South Dakota."

Adapting to 'the reality' of Trump Undeterred, Thune announced his candidacy for Senate Republican leader in February, after McConnell said he'd step down as leader following the general election. Thune had endorsed Trump several days earlier.

"We're more animated these days by the personality of Donald Trump, and that's the reality we live with and deal with if you want to be involved in public life," Thune said in March. "That's kind of where our voters are, and you have to listen to your voters."

Thune has said he's likely to agree with Trump on policy issues "95% of the time." But Thune has also said the Republican Party is "a different party than it was" when he first ran for Senate 20 years ago, while he's "still the same person" with the same commitments to individual responsibility, economic freedom, free markets, free enterprise and a strong national defense.

Like Daschle, who had to balance his representation of conservative constituents against his duties as a Democratic leader, Thune may have to balance his traditional Republican approach against Trump's radically different style.

The new Senate majority leader thinks he's up for the challenge.

"I think if you present your views and articulate the things you believe in, I still believe that you can do that with the strength of your convictions, and knowing that many times you're going to disagree and disagree strongly with people on the other side of the aisle or the other side of the issue," Thune said in March. "But you can still do it in a way that is respectful and hopefully appeals to people's hopes and aspirations rather than preying on their fears."